BERLIN, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- German stocks were almost unchanged at the start of trading on Friday, with the benchmark DAX increasing by 38.4 points, or 0.28 percent, opening at 13,533.46 points.
The biggest winner among Germany's 30 largest listed companies at the start of trading was German utility RWE, increasing 5.24 percent, followed by Germany's biggest airline Lufthansa with 1.39 percent and financial service provider Wirecard with 0.72 percent.
RWE would be likely to receive up to 2 billion euros (2.2 billion U.S. dollars) in compensation for phasing out of coal energy, the Rheinische Post reported on Friday. Negotiations on compensation between Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) and the Essen-based energy company were close to an agreement.
Shares of Siemens fell by 0.69 percent. The German technology giant was the biggest loser at the start of trading on Friday.
Siemens has come under criticism for the delivery of a train signal system for a planned giant coal mine in Australia. Climate activists in Germany are demanding that Siemens renounce the deal.
The BMW Group announced a new all-time high for vehicle deliveries in 2019. BMW Group sales increased by 1.2 percent to 2,520,307 vehicles last year. Shares of BMW were trading virtually unchanged at around 74.40 euros.
The euro was trading slightly lower at 1.1106 U.S. dollars on Friday morning, decreasing by 0.01 percent.
